Card Effect Lockdown
A Card Effect Lockdown strategy chiefly involves completely nullifying the opponent's card effects, thus making them rely solely on Monster presence, which can be done away with through attacking. You can approach this situation with a few cards. The cards below are listed in tier in their respective categories, from highest effectiveness to lowest in a deck themed around lockdown. Please note that Card Effect Lockdown decks employ virtually unstoppable Beatdown after the appropriate cards are on the field, meaning no further Spell and Trap cards are then needed. Recommended cards that negate Spell Cards * Silent Swordsman LV7 (Negates Spells altogether. Can be somewhat easy to Summon. Placed highest because it perfectly fits the description of negating spell cards.) * Secret Village of the Spellcasters (Your opponent cannot activate Spell Cards while you control a face-up Spellcaster and they don't. Comparing it to Horus, there are more Trap Cards and Monster Effects that can destroy Monsters, while there are fewer that destroy Spells and Traps.) * Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8 (Doesn't negate Spells already on the field but still allows you to use Spell cards. Opponent will generally have a monster for attacking, making it somewhat easy to summon.) * Naturia Beast (Negates Spell Cards by sending the 2 top cards of your deck to Graveyard. Easiest Spell-negating monster to Summon. Has synergy with the Trap-negating Naturia Balkion.) * Spell Canceller (Weaker version of Silent Swordsman LV7, although easier to Summon.) * Imperial Order Limit: Traditional Only (Is a Trap Card and is therefore negated by Royal Decree and Jinzo.) * Dark Paladin (Negates Spells by discarding cards, which creates a problem when you have no cards in your hand.) * Dark Balter the Terrible (Although it only negates Normal Spell Cards by paying 1000 LP, it also negates Effects of Effect Monsters that it destroys by battle.) Recommended cards that negate Trap Cards * Royal Decree Limit: 2 per Deck (No cost. Easiest to use.) * Jinzo (Easy to Summon. Boasts fairly high ATK for its Level.) * Sorcerer of Dark Magic (Hard to Summon. Doesn't negate Trap Cards already on the field or Counter Traps, but allows you to still use Traps.) * Ryu Senshi (Negates Normal Trap Cards by paying 1000 LP and cannot be targeted by Spell Cards as a bonus.) Recommended cards that negate Monster Effects * Destiny Hero - Plasma (Negates only the opponent's Monsters on the field. Can be made easy to summon with Scapegoat, etc. Chains to Quick Effects, making it invulnerable to all Monsters on the field.) * Angel 07 (Negates trigger effects and effects that activate in Graveyard.) * Dark Ruler Ha Des (Only negates cards after they have been destroyed by Fiends in battle.) * Revived King Ha Des (Only negates cards after they have been destroyed by Zombies in battle.) * Skill Drain Limit: 2 per Deck (Is a Trap Card and therefore can be negated by Jinzo if it is already out or Royal Decree.) Recommended cards that lock down the Graveyard * The End of Anubis (Total Graveyard lockdown, except for cards removal from Graveyard.) * Necrovalley (Blocks effects targeting the graveyard and cards removal from Graveyard.) Misc. Lockdowns and Supportive Cards * Cyber Blader (Negates any of your opponent's effects on the field. Main problem is your opponent must have exactly 3 monsters for Cyber Blader's negation effect to work. Effective with Ojama Trio.) * Stardust Dragon/Assault Mode (Can negate any effect once per turn, and can re-summon Stardust Dragon when destroyed.) * Stardust Dragon (Negates destruction effects.) * Invader of Darkness (Negates Quick-Play Spell Cards) * Royal Oppression (Negates Special Summons by paying 800 LPs) * Royal Command (Negates Flip Monster Effects) * The Emperor's Holiday (Negates Equip Spell Cards) * Light and Darkness Dragon (Negates all effects activated after it is Summoned) * Prime Material Dragon (Negates monster's destruction effects and turns all Burn damage to Life Point gain) * Prime Material Falcon (Negates spell/trap destruction by monster's effects) * Dupe Frog (having two on the field stops your opponent from declaring an attack) * Marauding Captain (having two on the field stops your opponent from declaring an attack on Warrior-type monsters) * Magician's Valkyria (having two on the field stops your opponent from declaring an attack on Spellcaster-type monsters) * Solar Flare Dragon (having two on the field stops your opponent from attacking either Solar Flare Dragon, plus your opponent takes 1000 damage per turn) * Command Knight (having two on the field stops your opponent from attacking either Command Knight, and boosts both their ATK to 2000 each) * Imperial Iron Wall (negates Remove from play effects) * G.B. Hunter (Mainly used to counter Gladiator Beasts and bouncing effects like Raiza the Storm Monarch/Legendary Jujitsu Master/Mystical Knight of Jackal) * Soul-Absorbing Bone Tower (having two on the field stops your opponent from attacking either Soul-Absorbing Bone Tower, plus your opponent is Milled by 4 cards each time a Zombie is Special Summoned) * Protector of the Sanctuary (negates Drawing effects) * Dimension Fortress Weapon (negate cards send from the Deck to Graveyard. Mainly designed to counter Mill Deck and Lightsworns Deck) * Jowgen the Spiritualist and Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo (Destroy all Special Summoned monsters and keeps your opponent from Special Summoning any monsters) * Spirit Barrier and Astral Barrier (As long as you have a monster on the field, your opponent can not attack monsters and cannot inflict any damage.) * Des Wombat (Negates Effect Damage. Mainly used to counter Burn Decks) * Dimensional Fissure/Macro Cosmos/Dimension Fortress Weapon and Gravekeeper's Servant (As long as Gravekeeper's Servant and one of the first 3 Cards are face up on the field together, can prevent your opponent from attacking) * Patrician of Darkness and Spirit Reaper/Marshmallon (By forcing the opponent to attack the latter ones, you may block all of your opponent's attacks) * Swords of Concealing Light and Kaiser Colosseum (If you've got both of these cards, your opponent can only control face-down monsters. If you don't want to lose your Swords of Concealing Light, add a Gravity Axe - Grarl and Zero Gravity instead) * Zombie World (prevents either player from Tribute Summoning non-Zombie type monsters) Supportive cards *Splendid Venus (Prevents your own cards from being negated. Allows Royal Decree and Royal Oppression to coexist while the controller can still activate Spells and Traps.) * 2 Ojama Kings (or 1 Ojama King and 1 Ojama Knight) (After destroying your opponents monsters on the field, summon these to completely lock down your opponents field, preventing them from summoning any monster to their field.) If you don't have enough room for two Ojama Fusions, try Ground Collapse instead. * Elemental Hero Wildheart/Tenkabito Shien (Those monsters are totally unaffected by Lockdown Traps including Skill Drain, meaning they might overcome into any Lockdown you play. However, since the point of the lockdown theme is to stop all traps anyway, these cards are hardly a counter.) * Doomcaliber Knight (This monster helps you negate monster effects if cards like Skill Drain cannot be salvaged. Although his effect is obligatory, it counters even effects activated outside the field)